Second Printer Install For Web Pages

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This Propellerhead Top Tip is actually an extension of one we published a while back, namely installing your printer twice, to trick Windows into thinking you have two separate printers. The ‘second’ printer can then be configured for a specific job, in this case black and white printing web pages. The reason you would want to do that is simple, colour printing costs between 10 and 20 times as much as black and white, and when all you want is the text content of a web page, why pay, and wait, for all of the fancy graphics and backgrounds?

To add a second printer in XP go to Start > Control Panel > Printers & Faxes, click the Add a Printer link or right click into the right hand pane and select Add A Printer then follow the prompts, giving your second printer installation a suitably recognisable name.

Now you can go into the second printer’s Properties, by right-clicking on the icon, and on the Preferences menu set it up to print only in Black and White. When you want to print a web page simply go to Print on the File menu and select your Black and White printer install from the drop-down menu.

Incidentally, some (but not all) printers have a Draft mode, which can also help cut down on the consumables and this is also worth trying for web printing or large jobs, where quality isn’t critical. For more great tips and tweaks visit the archive at PCTopTips.